Revisiting Eldredge and Gould 1972

In a landmark chapter published in 1972 in a book called Models in Paleobiology, Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould proposed, based on their observations of the fossil record, that evolution proceeds in short bursts of change separated by long periods of stasis, a theory they called "Punctuated Equilbria." In 2016, 44 years after the …

Revisiting Scheffer et al. 2001

In a paper published in Nature in 2001, Marten Scheffer, Steve Carpenter, Jonathan Foley, Carl Folke and Brian Walker reviewed the evidence for large-scale shifts between alternate stable states in different ecosystems, the patterns that emerge from such shifts, and its implications for the management of these ecosystems. Fifteen years after the paper was published, …

Revisiting Strong 1992

In a paper published in Ecology in 1992, Donald Strong reviewed the empirical literature on "actual" and "potential" trophic cascades, based on which he argued why trophic cascades are likely to be restricted to simple, low-diversity food webs. Twenty-six years after the paper was published, I spoke to Donald Strong about his interest in food …